Pentathletes successful on Blue Heron home track

It is no easy task to tackle the pentathlon, where you have to compete in five different events all in one day. But athletes from across the Island battled it out at the Blue Heron track last weekend to prove they were worthy of the challenge.

For nine-year-old Julia Peterson in her first season of track, it proved to be the highlight of her year with the Pen Track club.

Following a winning throw in the shot put at the recent Nanaimo meet, she triumphed in each of the hurdles, high jump, long jump, shot and 800m events to take the overall title in her age group.

Following her example, Amelia Casciola, 15, took her category with a winning total of 1,789 points, with Jacqueline Gaby, 15, filling second place with 1,476 points. For Julie Irwin, it was an agonizing one point that robbed her of a silver medal, when she had to settle for third place behind Lindsey Frederikson’s (unaffiliated) 1,739 points.

On the boys’ side, Connor McCullough, 12, continued his successful season, amassing 1,962 points to take the title ahead of Finn Battersby with his 1,849 total. In that same class, Ben Sammons was third with 1,466 points.

In the 15 age category, Michael Giles, who had won the 100m hurdles in Nanaimo, finished ahead of Julian Smith with 1,744 points to Smith’s 1,564.

As the younger athletes did their events, the older members exercised their muscles in the weight pentathlon, throwing successively the shot, discus, javelin, hammer and heavy weight.

Masters athlete Sandy Anderson (W70) led the way with her 3,055 points, while Les East (M70) scored 2,833 points and Phil Brodeur, showing that being 92 is no bar to having fun at the track, recorded 1,914 points.

Further down the age scale, Courtney Neville-Rutherford, 16, tallied 2,963 points to take her category.

Of note at the earlier Nanaimo meet, Jennifer Liu, 15, registered wins in both the discus (27.27m) and the hammer (29.04m), while Jaqueline Gaby again took the 1500m race walk event and Annina Lorenzo, 16, won the 800m race with a 2:30.65 personal best.

This weekend

The Peninsula Track and Field club athletes will hit Duncan for a meet this weekend. They’ll have a lot riding on their scores as it will be the trials for the B.C. Summer Games.